Charlie DiSilvestro is in his 22nd season leading the Drake women's rowing team. He was named head coach in July of 1993.

DiSilvestro was named the 2012 MAAC Coach of the Year prior to the MAAC Championships on April 27, 2012. Drake captured the MAAC championship the next day, its the first conference championship in school history. In May 2011, DiSilvestro was named Collegiate Coach of the Year by the Dad Vail Regatta in Philadelphia, Pa. The award is presented annually to a collegiate rowing coach that has had outstanding success and has also contributed to the regatta. In May of 2012, DiSilvestro helped lead Jacque Nowers, Kat Moore, Susan Goullette, Sarah Travis and Maggie Benhart to the women's varsity heavyweight four championship at the prestigous Dad Vail Regatta.

DiSilvestro was instrumental in helping 2010 rowing graduate, Chelsea Smith, be invited to train at USRowing Lightweight Pre-Elite Sculling Camp in the Bronx, New York while finishing second in the lightweight women's single sculls at USRowing's U-23 world championship trials during summer 2009. Smith also was honored in August 2009 with the Tim and Jerry Howlett Award as Drake's top female student-athlete for 2008-09. Smith has continued to excel on the world stage as she helped the United States place fourth in the lightweight senior quadruple sculls at the 2012 World Rowing Senior and Junior Championships in Bulgaria, Romania. Smith also won a pair bronze medals tat the XVI Pan American Games in Ciudad Guzman, Mexico in 2011.

DiSilvestro had served as head crew coach at Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill., from 1990 until his appointment at Drake with his teams winning titles in seven races during his tenure, including the boys' novice 8 at the 1991 Midwest High School Championship in Indianapolis, Ind.

DiSilvestro also served as head coach of the Penn Athletic Club Junior Program (1988-89) and Bonner High School (1987-88) in Philadelphia, Pa. He also was an assistant coach of the Penn Athletic Club in 1988.

A member of the United States Rowing Association, DiSilvestro was a collegiate rower at Wichita State from 1984-86. He also competed with the Penn Athletic Club in Philadephia, Pa., in 1986-87 while training for the U.S. National Team.